This post is a bit overdue (no surprise there), but better late than never right? Husband and I hit six years of marital bliss on December 18th, and to celebrate we decided to do a ‘staycation’ of sorts in my home-town of Boise, Idaho!

You guys – can I just tell you how amaze-balls this ended up being? Well, can I? Since we are communicating virtually and there’s no way for me to hear you if you’re saying ‘No cuz I don’t give a crap’ in answer to that question, I’ll go ahead and tell you: it was SO EPIC!

Chase and I were already in Boise for Christmas with my family, so we left the kiddos with my parentals and siblings and headed off to the cuuuuutest boutique hotel called Hotel43, where we stayed for two nights.

And let me just pause there. Do I have any Idahoans reading this right meow? If so, believe me when I tell you that you neeeed to get yo’self over to Hotel43 for a stay. And for any non-Idahoans – you may think that there are a million places that you would rather travel to for a fun getaway with your love, BUT, you’d be wise to not discount good old Boise, Idaho and this epic hotel. Boise is a diamond in the rough I tell you. And Hotel43 puts you in the heart of all of it. Located in central downtown, it is literally walking distance from all of my favorite places. And the room we stayed in, the food we ate, the service we received – it was all the best of the best. Long story long, you need to spend a night in this hotel.

^ A girl who worked at the hotel took these pics for us… cuz I shamelessly asked her if she’d do that. Chase was real embarrassed by me — a feeling he’s gotten used to over the past six years. And she probably thought we were weirdos. Or just real big annoying idiots. Haha! ^

Here’s what else we did

We ate everything. Just everything you guys. We ate and ate and ate, mostly because Shannon is a morbidly obese person on the inside who loves food almost as much as she loves her babies. #creepy For your reference, here are my favorite Boise restaurants! And if you’re from the Bois, pleeeeease leave a comment with other amazing Boise restaurants that I’ve missed (I know there are a ton of them)!

Room Service — Hotel43’s room service (we got it for breakfast) was literally to die for you guys. Probs cuz it also came from Chandler’s, mentioned above. Delicious!

We window-shopped all the homes on Warm Springs and Harrison Blvd – Boise’s most beautiful, charming streets. If you’re familiar with the area, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when I say Warm Springs and Harrison Blvd. And if you’re not familiar with the area but are ever visiting Boise, I highly recommend doing a real slow drive down these two streets. The houses on them are what dreams are made of.

And then we may or may not have taken it a step further and pretended we were actually thinking about buying one of these big beautiful homes and walked through a couple that were on sale. For all my real estate agent friends and readers – I apologize. I know that’s kind of a douchey thing for us to do, from the agent’s perspective anyway. But we couldn’t help ourselves. And secretly you guys? That’s like one of our favorite things to do. We walked through the house in this pic below — it’s in the foothills of Boise, near Lucky Peak — and it was just absolutely gorrrrgeous. Don’t worry that it was listed for over a million dollars and like 7,000 square feet or something. Totally in our budget right now (not!). But it’s fun to dream.

We got hot chocolate at the coffee shop where our wedding reception was held six years ago. Yep – Chase and I had our wedding reception in a coffee shop. Rembrandt’s in Eagle. Since then they’ve actually completely remodeled it, which may or may not have made me cry when I saw it. But it was still a fun walk down memory lane.

We shopped. Duh. But if you’re visiting Boise, you should hit up what’s called Bodo. It’s a little shopping square on Broad street between Capitol and 9th. It’s got some cute boutiques and some good mainstream retailers as well (Urban Outfitters, Loft, etc.). And then walk a few blocks over to 8th street, Idaho street and that general area for more cute boutiques and good restaurants (this is where Fork Restaurant mentioned above is located). In the summer they have a killer farmer’s market right in this location. I miss it!

We went and saw a movie at the Egyptian Theatre. False. We didn’t actually do this. But I wish we had, which is why I’m putting it on this list. You guys, if you’re visiting Boise, you should do this. The Egyptian Theatre is a restored landmark built in the 1920’s that still features movies and plays. And the inside is just so darn cool.

We played in the snow at Still Water Hollow. Ok, our real reason for going out to Still Water is that we had to sneak a family photo shoot into the middle of our anniversary weekend. That’s the honest truth. Timing wasn’t ideal but hey, deadlines are deadlines. It ended up being fun though cuz we got to see our kids and then hand them right back to my angel-mother (haha), AND we got to see Still Water Hollow, which is just the most charming, enchanting little place in all the land (see pics below). AND, if you’re looking for a fabulous Boise photographer, Amanda Cherie is your girl. She took our pics and they turned out guuuuuud. Plus we loved her.

That’s the bulk of how we spent our anniversary weekend! The whole home-town, staycation aspect was so fun for me. And that def made me feel like a contestant on The Bachelor just then (‘home-towns’, haha), but seriously – if you ever get the chance to do a romantic getaway with your love in the town either of you grew up in, I highly recommend it!

And here are some other anniversary date ideas…

Anniversary Date Ideas:

So these are all taking a cue from the things we did for our little anniversary weekend date, but I’m sharing them because it ended up being so much fun!

Try new restaurants. Maybe more than one. I mean let’s be serious – it’s hard to beat going to the places that you know you love, especially for a special occasion like your anniversary. But, there’s something to be said for mixing it up and being spontaneous. Spice and romance and novelty are the lungs (if you will) of a healthy marriage – amiright? Or maybe that made zero sense and I’m taking out of my bum right now, but what I really mean is that trying new things together is a way to keep things fresh and fun. And can you think of a better time to remind your love that your partnership is not ‘routine, business as usual’ than on your anniversary? Neither can I.

Find a sitter you trust and stay in a hotel for a night. Just get away together – for an entire night. Doesn’t haven’t to be a nice hotel. Doesn’t have to be expensive. Just needs to afford you the opportunity to have at least one night together that feels special and different than most nights. A night for just the two of you.

Take a walk down memory lane. Now depending on where you live, this might be possible. Part of what made our anniversary date in Boise so fun is that I grew up there AND it’s where Chase and I got married. So there were lots of memories to go visit, and I loved that.

Get a couple’s massage. Again, I’m not trying to suggest that you break the bank. But if massages aren’t something you do regularly (we never do them), it would be a super fun, special thing to do as an anniversary treat to yourselves.

Go to a movie. So probably not everyone loves going to movies as much as Chase and I do, but I think any couple with kids can relate to the fact that once you have babies, the movie-going decreases significantly. So if you get to steal away alone together for an anniversary weekend date, go to a stinking movie!

^ Turns out I just really, really like this guy. ^
Photo by Amanda Cherie

What kinds of things have you guys done for your anniversaries?
Fill a sista in!